Provincial News

Province increases support for ABE

The coming year will bring significant changes for literacy and adult basic education students in BC college and school district programs, following the provincial government’s fall announcement of increased investments in ABE.

The changes will make adult basic education programs tuition-free and increase the financial aid available to help adult learners pay for books, transportation and childcare while they study.

The announcement focused on three elements:

• The second phase of the ReadNow BC action plan
• Tuition changes through LearnNowBC (BC’s virtual school)
• The launch of the BC Literacy Directory

The ABE tuition changes are already in place at LearnNow BC and will take effect in January 2008 at public post-secondary institutions, and in September 2008 for courses provided through school districts.

Our Online BC Literacy Directory Goes Live

The new online BC Literacy Directory directory expands on our existing toll-free information and referral service, the Read 234 line (1-888-READ-234), in operation since early 2007.

The new resource, featuring an interactive map to find information on literacy programs throughout the province, is designed as a user-friendly, accessible database to help people identify lifelong literacy, skills upgrading and ESL programs and supports across BC. The site has been developed with the assistance of the Ministry of Education in support of the ReadNow BC action plan.

Send us your feedback on the Directory

We encourage anyone with an interest in this valuable new tool to explore the BC Literacy Directory. We invite everyone - practitioners, instructors, tutors, students – to check out what’s listed for your community, and send us your comments, corrections, updates, suggestions, and changes. Let us know what you think.